The Idea Of Progress

I am going to talk about the notion called The idea of Progress.

First of all, I would like to give a definition of the notion.

This notion can be defined as an improvement, a development or a change in technology, science and social organisation which bring about a positive change to our society. These advances help improve our daily lives and give us a better quality of life. Social progress, scientific progress and economic development are usually considered as having a positive effect on our society however there are some cases where this change can have a negative effect too. Very often progress is also accompanied by opposition because society isn’t comfortable with the changes being made (same sex marriage, women’s rights, minority rights for example).

This year, in class we studied several documents about the notion of Progress.

In order to illustrate this notion, I have chosen to talk about the social progress.

We can wonder how the end to apartheid in South Africa and up-cycling illustrate the notion of social progress.

We will first see that up-cycling is a good example of social progress.

Then, we will see that the end of apartheid in South Africa is also an interesting example of social progress.

Last but not least, we will make a link between the documents in a way to see why they inspired us.

First of all, up-cycling is a good example of social progress.

The first document I have chosen is a blog article about up-cycling, sustainable development and responsible consumption, written by an unknown author.

It indicates how we can convert old materials into something useful and often beautiful. This text perfectly illustrates the idea of social progress because it is a change that affects the social and environmental needs of a society.

Indeed, up-cycling is much better for the planet than throwing things away, according to the text.

After reading this text we understand that up-cycling is better that recycling, environmentally, because it doesn’t require energy or water to break down materials. It changes the society because people can be more creative thanks to up cycling.

Moreover, the end of apartheid in South Africa is an interesting example of social progress.

The second document I have chosen is a timeline about the events which changed the dominations in South Africa.

By studying the document, we can see that South Africa was dominated by the Europeans in the middle of the 17th century, an authoritarian domination.

An authoritarian domination consists in using power without democracy, the oppositions is punished and oppressed.

Since 1994, South Africa has a democratic government, with the election of Nelson Mandela.

This text perfectly illustrates the idea of social progress because we see that South Africa passed from an authoritarian domination to a democracy. We can also see that the end of apartheid

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